The War of the Skies
by Captain Cutlass
Summary: Did you ever wish that you could have seen what actually happened on that fateful day 1,000 years ago when Luna got banished to the moon. Well, here comes a story that tells you what really happened that day like you've never heard before!
1. Chapter 1

**The War of the Skies**

**Inspired by the incredible music of Not a Clever Pony**

For Kylan and Not a Clever Pony.

Over 1,000 years ago, there were two sisters who ruled over Equestria together. There was the older sister, Princess Celestia, who raised the sun into the sky every morning. And there was Princess Luna, the younger sister, who brought the moon and stars into the sky every night. That was the way it had been for countless years. But one fateful day, that perfect balance began to be disrupted. And, so our story begins…

It was a beautiful night in Canterlot. Morning was approaching. The two sisters were in a field just outside the palace, enjoying the night together. Celestia was ready to raise the sun high into the sky to light up all of Equestria. All that needed to be done was have Luna lower the moon.

"What another beautiful night, Luna." Celestia said to her sister. "But morning is approaching again. It's time for you to lower the moon."

Luna had been thinking all night about this. She had been feeling like her beautiful night was underappreciated for a while now. So she hesitated.

"Big Sister?" Luna said. "I've been thinking hard about this for a long time, about my night, and it just doesn't seem fair that everypony loves and enjoys your daytime but sleeps through such a beautiful night. Could we maybe leave the moon up for a few more hours?"

"Luna," Celestia started. "I understand how you feel, but it's our responsibility to give everypony morning and night every day at the right times. And also, ponies love your night. I certainly do. It's beautiful! But you have to understand that other ponies work and play in the daytime because it's bright enough for them to see, and they rest during the night because it's too dark for them to do their daily tasks, and also because they need sleep."

"We don't need sleep." Luna said. "Why do they need sleep?"

"I know. But we're not like other ponies. You and me, we're special. And that's why it's our job to bring everypony the different times of day."

"Well, I still wish they didn't sleep through my night. I raise the moon and the stars to give them enough light during the nighttime, yet it feels like I'm doing it for nothing. You know what? I don't think I should lower the moon tonight. I want everypony to get to experience my night, not just your day."

"Luna, we can't. I know where your heart's at, but we have to do it! Please!"

"I'm sorry, Sister, but I've made up my mind. I'm not lowering the moon tonight."

After she said that, a shadowy cloud of black mist appeared around her, and it began to swirl around and envelop the young pony. The mist lifted Luna into the air and began to swirl around faster. And then there was a sudden flash of white light that burst from the veil and vanished in the blink of an eye! The mist disappeared and Luna was lowered down to the ground again. She didn't look the same anymore. She had transformed into a fully-grown mare with a jet black coat and what seemed to be the night sky itself for a mane.

"What has happened to you, Luna?" Celestia said worriedly. "You're not the same anymore!"

"I'm not Luna anymore, Celestia!" her sister said. "I am Nightmare Moon, Ruler of Night! I'm not going to lower the moon for you, or anypony, ever again!"

"No!" Celestia cried out. "You can't do that! The very balance of this world would be undone! Without my day, the world would fall into disaster!"

"You and everypony else has enjoyed your day long enough! It's time they got to enjoy my night for a change! From now on, we no longer rule side by side. I will create my own government and rule my own part of the land. It shall be known as the New Lunar Republic, and the two of us will be enemies!"

"So, it's come to this." said Celestia sorrowfully. "In that case, I must lead my own government. I will call it the Celestian Empire, and I will rule apart from you. But I realize that we will not be able to both rule peacefully, because there cannot be two times of day at once in one place. So, I'm afraid, we must go to war. We will gather the whole city of Canterlot into our palace tomorrow and have a meeting explaining to everypony what has happened, and give citizens the opportunity to sign up to fight in the war against each other."

"So be it." Nightmare Moon agreed. "Tomorrow, we will have a temporary truce between each other, but the night after, there will be war."

And Nightmare Moon vanished, having teleported back to the palace for the time being, beginning preparations for the upcoming war. Celestia lowered the moon and the stars herself, and raised the sun into the sky, beginning morning. She walked back to the palace with a heavy heart, to prepare for the war as well.

After a morning of preparations, the afternoon had arrived. The entire city of Canterlot was called into the audience chamber of the palace, where Celestia and Nightmare Moon were standing, ready to give their speeches.

"Good citizens of Canterlot." Celestia began. "I hate to inform you all about this, but the times of peace we have enjoyed for so many years are over. Your princess, Luna, has decided for us to rule separately, and I have agreed to do the same. There will be a great war tonight, I'm afraid. The battle will decide who will be in charge of the different times of day. We must have this war because, as you know, it cannot be both day and night in one area. And now, Princess Luna will explain the rest to you."

"Good day, everypony." Nightmare Moon greeted. "What Celestia has just told you is true. We have divided the nation in two. She will rule her part as the Celestian Empire, and I will rule mine as the New Lunar Republic. We have given you the choice to join mine, or my sister's government, as well as the choice whether or not to fight in the war for that side. We've made all the necessary preparations for the war, but we have little time to train you, so we ask that only those ponies who are absolutely sure about this to enlist in it. We cannot guarantee the losses from the war to anypony. So, at this time, we ask you to divide yourselves up, and move to either her, or my side of the room to signify to everypony whose government you have chosen."

Everypony was sad to hear such tragic news, but they divided themselves up, and moved to the side that they chose. It was a pretty even division, too! About one half of the city moved to each side.

"Excellent!" said Nightmare Moon. "Now, those of you who wish to enlist in this war, please step forward to either me or Celestia. We will personally tell you where we need you in our armies."

The whole city began quietly chattering between one another while brave ponies from each side made two single-file lines and approached their princess to enlist.

"Hello." Princess Celestia said to the first pony in her line. "What's your name?"

"My name is Kamus, your Highness." said a young, green pegasus pony with a cutie mark of two crossed swords.

"Alright, Kamus. What are your skills that we can use in a battle?"

"Well, I've been on the Canterlot City Weather Patrol for about five years, and I can fly very fast and cause all kinds of storms. I have lots of experience with leading the rest of the patrol, and am really good at leading large crowds."

"Very well, Kamus. I believe the best job for you in our army would be to lead part of the Celestian Air Force. Your group in the Air Force will lead an attack on Luna's Navy. You will be in charge of everypony else in the same group and can give them orders as you see fit. Congratulations, General Kamus!"

"Thank you, Princess." he said. "Or is it Empress now?"

"Either one would be fine, thank you." Celestia said with a smile. "Ok, who's next?"

Kamus stepped aside and the next pony stepped forward to Celestia. In the meantime, Nightmare Moon was recruiting her first soldier.

"Greetings!" Nightmare welcomed. "What is your name, sir?

"Cutlass, your Majesty." said a young, red pony with a golden mane, bearing a cutie mark of a ship sailing the sea. "I'm a sea pony with years of sailing experience. I've been living by the water for most of my life."

"Sea pony? I've never heard of a sea pony before. You look just like an Earth pony."

"I'm not from Canterlot, your Highness. Sea ponies look like Earth ponies, but have the natural ability to breathe on both land and in water. My civilization prefers to live underwater, deep in the sea, but I've found the land to be very hospitable as well."

"I see. Are you good at giving orders?"

"Oh, yes. I also know everything there is to know about sailing and ships."

"Wonderful! Your best job would be to lead our Lunar Navy in battle. You will have an entire crew and ship under your command. I'm counting on you to lead our Navy to victory. Congratulations, Captain Cutlass!"

"Thank you, my Princess." Cutlass said bowing. "I won't let you down."

"Thank you, Captain. You are dismissed. Who's next?"

Cutlass walked away, back into the crowd, while another, older looking pony approached Nightmare.

"Hello, sir." Nightmare greeted. "What is your name?"

"Everypony calls me Clever, your Majesty." said a unicorn stallion. "I'm great with leading people and taming all sorts of wild animals. I'm also skilled in magic."

"Great! I think you're best fit would be as a general in the Lunar Legion. You will ride one of our beasts of war and command a large part of the Legion. I will show you your animal tonight on the battleground. Congratulations, General Clever!"

"Thank you most kindly, Mistress of Night! I'll do my best!"

"Mistress of Night? I like the way you think! You are dismissed. Who's next?"

The recruiting process went on for another two hours for both sides. Many more ponies were recruited during that time and all were given important jobs. After the recruiting was over, Celestia and Nightmare gathered all of their troops outside to two different sides of a wide open field by the sea. That was to be their battleground that night. The war would take place late at night, right as morning was approaching. They explained how the war would take place. Celestia would try to raise the sun into the sky and push the moon out of the way, while Nightmare would try to keep the moon up as long as she could, and keep the sun down. The troops would try to defeat the opposite teams and bring victory to their group. Each side went back to the palace to ready themselves for the war. Nightmare gave everypony in her Legion who wasn't a unicorn a helmet with a built-in metal horn. The horns weren't magical, but they would still prove useful.

In the meantime, while her sister was readying her side's troops, Celestia flew off, far from Canterlot, down to an uninhabited part of the land. She didn't tell her troops why, but they knew she had her reasons. Nightmare took her ships that she built to the ocean and boarded the captains and their crews onto them. The ships were armed with many cannons and strong sails. Celestia had already done this earlier before she flew off. Nighttime fell, and both sides were still preparing. Celestia had returned carrying large saddlebags that contained something she had found while away in the unknown land. Nopony else knew what it was that she brought back, but it definitely seemed important. The troops were now going over their battle strategies, and some were taking brief naps before the battle. It was a lot of preparing to do in one day, but they took care of everything in time for dawn. The princesses gave motivational speeches to their armies before the war began, and gave everyone the chance to say their possibly last goodbyes. It was a sad moment, but they had to be strong, because it could very well be the longest and hardest dawn of their lives.

Dawn was approaching fast. The time for war had almost begun. Both princesses sent all of their troops to get into their positions on the battleground. Nightmare Moon asked General Clever to follow her behind the rest of the Legion.

"General Clever," Nightmare began. "It's time for you to meet your war beast."

Clever looked around. He saw nothing except for Nightmare and the wide open field.

"I don't see anything. Where is it, Commander?" he asked confusedly.

"Up there." Nightmare answered, looking up at the stars.

"You mean the stars? How am I supposed to ride stars?"

"Watch."

And Nightmare fired a powerful magic that had never been done before, into the sky. She fired it straight at two different constellations, and her magic caused them to take physical shape and become alive. They appeared as a giant blue bear and a purple bear about five times the size of the blue one. Nightmare Moon lowered the bears down from the sky and onto the battlefield in front of them.

"This," she introduced. "Is your ride. An Ursa Minor. You will ride it through the field, control it to attack Celestia's war beasts, and protect the Legion with it. I will ride the Ursa Major throughout the field while keeping the moon in the sky and forcing down the sun. I'm counting on you and the rest of the Legion to help me achieve this goal."

"Yes, Ma'am!" Clever said without hesitation.

"Good."

Clever used magic to lift himself up onto the Ursa's back and mounted it. Nightmare Moon flew on top of the Ursa Major's back and mounted the celestial bear. They walked back to the front lines of the Legion and got into position.

Meanwhile on Celestia's side, she and the lead general of the Celestian Legion both mounted their war beasts. Her general mounted a brown hydra while she mounted a huge, red dragon. The two of them returned to the front lines of their Legion, awaiting dawn.

The captains and the crew from both Navies waited on their ships on their sides of the battleground. On each side, the ships were lined up in three horizontal rows of five, ready to set sail. Captain Cutlass stood on the bow of his ship, with a prepared look on his face. Everypony was in suspense, waiting for dawn to finally arrive.

Both Air Forces flew into their various positions. Some were assigned to fight above the land, others, assigned to the sea. General Kamus was leading the fight against the Lunar Navy along with many other troops. He was fairly nervous, but ready to fight for his Princess. They all landed on their positions and anxiously awaited the signal. Everything was perfectly still. Not a sound was heard for a moment. The tension was so great you could actually feel it in the air. Everypony was ready, ready for the great battle that would surely go down in history. And then, after having kept everypony waiting long enough, dawn arrived.

**To be continued…**


	2. Chapter 2

**The War of the Skies**

**Part II**

Princess Celestia started to raise the sun into the air while Nightmare began to try to force it down.

"CHARGE!" Clever yelled to Nightmare's army.

The ships from both Navies raised anchor and started sailing at each other. Both Air Forces flew up into the air and started dashing all across the sky in various formations. The Legions and their war animals began charging straight for one another at top speed.

Captain Cutlass was on the front lines of the Lunar Navy. He raised his cutlass in the air and pointed to Celestia's ships.

"Everypony," he began. "We must not only defeat the Celestian Navy, but also aid in defeating her Air Force. General Kamus will be leading an aerial attack on our Navy, so we need to prepare ourselves for anything. Helmsman, steer us off to the left of Celestia's ships! The rest of you, load up the cannons and stand by for orders! We're going to win this fight!"

The crew followed their captain's orders and led the rest of the ships to follow their lead.

General Kamus was on one of Celestia's ships with some other Air Force members. He began to instruct them what to do.

"Troops," he started. "The Lunar Navy is strong, but we must be stronger! Air Force, we're going to lead scattered aerial attacks on their Navy so that they can't fire at our entire formation. I will create a large storm that could easily destroy many of our enemies' ships, so our Navy must steer clear of me when I begin. You have your orders, now fly!"

Kamus and his troops propelled themselves into the air and darted across the black, cloudy sky in no formation whatsoever.

General Clever and Nightmare Moon marched their beasts across the battlefield leading the rest of the Legion. The Legions were charging straight for each other at top speed. They were getting closer and closer until finally, CLASH! The fight had begun! The troops started hitting each other hard with their hooves and lifting them with their horn helmets from underneath and flinging them into each other. The Air Forces lifted enemy troops into the air and dropped them down on top of their own Legion. As the two princesses grew closer to one another, the stronger their magic was, and the harder it became to raise or lower the other's beacon. Celestia's dragon flew in the air above the Lunar Legion, but Nightmare's Ursa Major stood up on its giant, purple, transparent legs, gave a swipe of its claw and sent the dragon crashing to the ground. Nightmare's army got out of the way of the crash just in time. The crash of her dragon weakened the grasp Celestia had on the sun and caused her sister to start to force the sun down. Quickly, Celestia's dragon got back on its four feet and flew into the sky while she got a grip back on the sun.

Meanwhile, Celestia's Air Force was buzzing all around the Lunar Navy, making it harder for the ships to hit the moving targets.

"Don't waste your ammo on the quick moving targets!" Captain Cutlass told his crew. "Keep firing at the ships and swat down the dive bombers with your swords!"

Captain Cutlass definitely knew what he was talking about, because on some of the other ships, they were trying to shoot down the Celestian Air Force and just ended up blasting holes in their other ships. The dive bombers kept picking up crew members led by less wise captains and dropping them on top of the crew of another ship or into the sea. Cutlass came up with a great plan for himself. He ran to the bow of his ship with his cutlass worn around his hoof.

"Don't worry, crew. I know what I'm doing. Carry on my orders! I'll be back!"

His crew watched him as he put his hooves over his head and dove into the war-ridden sea. He swam underwater to the bottom of one of Celestia's ships and used his cutlass to carve a large, square hole in the wood and climbed through. The ship was now sinking thanks to that hole. One of the crew members down below deck saw Cutlass and shouted 'Hey!' on site of him, but as soon as he said that, Cutlass head-butted him with his bare, helmetless skull and knocked him out with a side punch to the head. The crew member lay on the submerging floor unconscious as Cutlass ran up the stairs to the upper deck. He came up to the top deck, but everypony on the ship was too busy following orders that they didn't notice his presence. Captain Cutlass ran over to the cannoneers and bucked them in the flanks overboard. The helmsman caught sight of him and ran over to Cutlass, catching his attention. The two raised their swords in the air and started swashbuckling at each other. After about fifteen seconds, Cutlass disarmed the helmsman and knocked him overboard with a kick to the side from his forelegs.

He climbed up the rope ladder to get to the crow's nest where Celestia's flag was hanging, dodging a cannonball fired at him by his own ship. He reached the top and severed the flag from the rope with a quick swipe of his cutlass and tied the flag of the New Lunar Republic he had in his side pouch to the rope instead. Cutlass's crew saw his symbol of triumph and knew he was successful. Their captain climbed down the rope ladder and manned the captured ship's steering wheel. He turned the ship around a full 180 degrees and headed straight for one of Celestia's other ships. The original captain of the captured ship came out of the Captain's Quarters, unaware of what had happened up until that point, but he was too late to stop Cutlass. The sinking ship crashed into one of Celestia's other ships and both started to get crushed and splintered in a violent collision. Cutlass gave a quick salute to the captain with a taunting smile on his face and dove backwards off of the ship's stern and swam back to his own ship, leaving the great setback he had just caused the Celestian Navy behind him.

Cutlass's crew lowered a rope for him to grab onto and hoisted him out of the water onto the top deck. They praised their captain and congratulated him on his success. He enjoyed the praise they were showering him with, but he thanked them and asked them to get back into positions again. They listened to him and manned the cannons and wheel once more.

Cutlass was watching the enemy's ships, trying to figure out where to direct his helmsman to steer to, when he saw that the Celestian Navy started to turn around and head back.

"This can't mean we've won." Cutlass said to himself. "No. It's too soon. Something isn't right."

Cutlass looked off way in the distance, far to the left of his ship, he saw a pegasus pony circling around and around in the air at top speed. He knew it was General Kamus, preparing for a massive attack. Kamus kept spinning around the sea as fast as he could until he started to create a vortex and cause the ocean to get sucked up into it. The vortex grew and grew until it became a giant waterspout, Kamus being in the very center of it. It was slowly heading straight for the Lunar Navy. The crew began to panic, shouting 'CYCLONE!' at the top of their lungs.

"Calm down, everypony!" Captain Cutlass ordered his crew. "I've seen cyclones before, real ones, and those are a true danger. This, however, is not! That cyclone was made by General Kamus and it can be stopped! Cannoneers, fire as much ammunition as possible into the center of that cyclone!"

"But the cyclone will just fling the cannonballs back at our ships!" one of the cannoneers said in a panic.

"We have to risk it." he told them. "It's our only shot at surviving the attack! We have to hit Kamus to break his control over the storm! That's an order!"

"Yes, sir!" everypony replied, putting their trust in the young captain's wisdom.

The crew gathered all the ammunition they could find, and began loading it up into the cannons. They aimed them straight at the center of the cyclone and fired! The cannonballs got swept into the thick shell of wind, not quite making it to the center. After seeing Cutlass's ship attacking the cyclone, the other ships began to fire their ammunition at it, too. With each cannonball sucked into it, the cyclone became even more of a threat to the ships, but they continued to fire. The cyclone kept getting closer and closer to the Lunar Navy, and more and more full of cannonballs with every second. After a few minutes of constant firing, the cyclone became as full of black iron as it was full of wind and water. The cyclone was getting dangerously close to the ships, so close that they now realized that the cyclone had grown to be about as big as the princesses' palace in Canterlot. But then, right as the cyclone was about to reduce the entire Navy to a huge pile of splinters, a single cannonball fired from Cutlass's ship, collided into another cannonball in the cyclone and knocked it back right into Kamus. The force of the cannonball was so great, Kamus lost control of the storm and the entire collection of previously fired ammunition got scattered in all directions at incredibly high speeds. The cannonballs tremendously overshot the Lunar Navy, some even ended up crashing into the land where the Legions were fighting, but they were going fast enough and far enough that they caught up with the Celestian Navy and completely bombarded and obliterated almost every retreating ship.

Kamus dropped down from the sky into the sea, unconscious, and Captain Cutlass dove into the water after him. He swam underneath him, letting Kamus land on his back, and carried him up to the surface.

"Give us a boost, lads!" he yelled to his crew.

The crew obeyed their captain, even though they didn't understand why he had just jumped overboard to save the enemy. They lowered a row boat into the water, which Cutlass climbed into, and raised it up to the top deck. Cutlass lowered Kamus off his back gently onto the deck and stepped back. Kamus was starting to regain consciousness.

"Cutlass?" Kamus asked. "Why did you save me? I'm your enemy."

"We're only enemies because of this war, Kamus." He said. "I saved you because we're actually good friends, remember? You were one of the first people I met when I moved to Canterlot from my homeland. You showed me around the city and treated me like a close friend, which we soon ended up becoming. I wasn't about to let an old friend of mine drown." Cutlass finished with a friendly smile.

Kamus gave a smile to his friend in return.

"Thank you, Cutlass. I surrender. You've won this battle."

Captain Cutlass's crew let out cheers of victory and happiness.

"Very well, then." Cutlass said, offering his hoof to lift his friend up, which Kamus accepts. "Now all that remains is the fight between the Legions and princesses."

"You're right." Kamus said.

Everypony on board looked up into the sky to see how the princesses were doing.

Back on the field, both Air Forces and Legions were still battling. The fight wasn't favoring either side. The casualties and number of able-bodied troops were pretty evenly balanced between the two sides. The hydra from Celestia's side was busy bashing away at Nightmare's army with its many heads, while Clever's Ursa Minor swiped the Celestian Legion across the field with its massive claws.

Celestia and Nightmare were both forcing the sun and moon in and out of the sky with all of their might now. The sun and the moon were being pushed closer and closer to each other by forces of equal, growing strength until the two finally collided in the air. The two were rubbing at each other with such high amounts of power that orange and purple blasts of energy were emitting from where they were colliding. The power was too much for either of the sisters to handle that their horns started to burst with immensely powerful, white light. After a few moments, the power of the beacons completely took over the princesses bodies. Their eyes glowed white and their spirits left their bodies and manifested themselves into the sun and the moon themselves, leaving their bodies in autopilot.

Celestia and Nightmare charged with all their might at each other, now controlling the beacons with their actions. The sun forcing itself against the moon created a ferocious, orange heat wave that began to slowly overpower the moon. Nightmare tried counter the engulfing sun, but Celestia was too strong and continued to overpower her. The sun consumed the moon more and more with every second until finally it had completely engulfed it. Celestia had caused a lunar eclipse! Nightmare gave out a loud, echoing scream of defeat as her spirit returned to her body back on Earth. Celestia relinquished her control over the sun and returned to the mortal world as well.

Their spirits re-entered their bodies and they stopped using their magic. Celestia stood tall on the back of her dragon while her sister collapsed from exhaustion, panting. Celestia opened up her saddlebags and used her magic to levitate the contents of them into the air. They were six, round, stone orbs with sparkles emitting from them.

"What… are those?" Nightmare asked weakly.

"These are the Elements of Harmony, Sister." Celestia answered. "And I must use them to end this war."

"You don't actually plan on killing your own sister… do you?" Nightmare asked, desperately hoping the answer was no.

"I would never kill you, Luna. But I cannot allow you to bring nighttime eternal. So, I hereby banish you to the moon."

Nightmare would've tried to resist, but she was so exhausted from the battle that she could barely move. Celestia closed her eyes and began to draw magic from the orbs into her horn. Then, she channeled that magic into a rainbow beam pointed straight at Nightmare. The beam of rainbow swirled around her and carried her high up into the sky. It carried her all the way to the moon, which began to drift from the sun, and sealed her inside it. At that moment, giant craters formed on the moon in the shape of Luna's head as a symbol of her imprisonment. The Elements were lowered back onto the ground now that the magic was complete. Everypony stopped fighting at that time because they knew that the war was over. They all stopped and stared at Celestia. She flew off of the dragon's back and landed on the ground in front of the Legions.

"Everypony," she started. "You have all fought valiantly, and now the war has come to an end. The New Lunar Republic is no more… and so is the Celestian Empire. I never wanted to divide us like this. I wish that we can live together in a united nation. So that's exactly what we are going to do. Our nation is now no longer divided, but you won't see Princess Luna again for 1,000 years. I will take the responsibility of raising and lowering the sun, moon, and stars and try my best to rule Equestria in peace."

The soldiers of the previous war stood where they were with smiles growing on their faces that they could all live in peace again. Princess Celestia lowered the moon and stars for the day and left the rising sun up in the sky.

"I need everypony with some medical experience to follow me and help me heal the injured, the rest of you are free to head back to Canterlot at any time."

The doctors and medics followed Celestia across the field, healing the wounded, while everypony from the Navies departed from their ships onto the dry land. Most everypony from the wreckage made it back to shore though, so the losses were minimal. Cutlass and Kamus walked back to Canterlot together as good friends again. The war beasts that had been taken from various places we're returned to where they were found, except for the Ursas, who found a large cave to live in somewhere in the unknown land. After the soldiers were healed, everypony returned to Canterlot, ready to resume their peaceful lives.

And so our story ends, with peace restored to the land. But what would happen when the 1,000 years of Princess Luna's imprisonment were up? Would she abandon her dreams of bringing nighttime eternal, or would she carry on her sinister plot all these years? I guess only time will tell.

**The End**


End file.
